fondue and games date night!

This weekend we got together with our friends Trap and Suz and had a little game night complete with chocolate and cheese fondue!  It was so yummy!  We love to eat, play games, and talk with friends so it was the perfect combination.

 We made Chile Con Queso, Revved Up and then proceeded to engorge ourselves with sugar by dipping strawberries, fresh pineapple, grapes, Oreos, and more in yummy Chocolate Fondue. We played our two favorite games Settlers of Catan (which was won by Suzy at the last minute!) and Dominion (which I dominated twice! Woo hoo!) And the night ended with an awesome impromptu dance party starring Suzy and myself, the guys weren't about to get in on that, but they did do the dishes!

I felt a little sick the next day from all the chocolate and cheese and staying out WAY too late...having too much fun?  NEVER!  But it was, for sure, one of the funnest game nights I have had!

And just for fun.  Here are our favorite game night picks. 

a memory of love.

My sister, Emily and her husband have been married for 10 years.  Wow!  10 years!  I remember when they got engaged.  To a 17 year old like me, it was seemed like such a fairy tale and so romantic!

It was Christmas Eve.  It was snowing and my Dad was shoveling snow off of our back deck.  As I looked out the window, I saw my sister run up the stairs to the deck, her arms full of a huge bouquet of roses, and throw her arms around my Dad.  Then Aaron was there and she announced that she was engaged to him!  (It reminded me of a song by a boy band I loved at the time.)  I was a little emotional and I didn't know what to do, but I remember that I was in awe of them and their little romance.  I guess I still am.  They are a couple that I look up to in many ways.  We love to be around them!

Above left: Emily and Aaron on their wedding day, 2001  ||  Above right: Emily and her family, 2010

a wedding day funny.

Last night I was talking to my Mother-in-law about when Connel and I got engaged.  It was kind of funny, as I re-told her the story, how certain little things came back to me as I talked about it.  Connel was there talking about it too and it was really interesting how he of course remembered different things than I did.  I was also talking to my Mom yesterday and we were discussing how all of us in our family have different memories of the same events or times in life.  I guess, when telling your stories, it's good to have more than just your own input.  It would be good to ask what your parents or siblings or spouse or in-laws remember about the events, it could provide some good humor or insight to the story that you might have missed yourself.

Like for example, my sister posted on Facebook on our anniversary..."7 years ago all the uncles sat around and made fun of the newlyweds on their honeymoon ;)"  And I was like...wait...is that true? did they really?  Anyway, that's kind of a funny little detail that adds some humor to *ahem*...our side of the story.

may 2011.

We've been up to lots in the past 5 or 6 weeks.  Here are some fun happenings with Hannah in the month of May.

A Sunday afternoon at the park:

Can't tell you how much she loves the slide!  She is such a daredevil and likes to go face first...as long as we are at the bottom waiting to catch her!

Spending lots of extra time together at bedtime:

Uncomfortable?

Notice sleeping Daddy! :)

The face Hannah makes sometimes when we ask her to fold her arms...she now says AMEN!  really loud after each prayer. :)

Giving Mommy a very Happy Mother's Day with a yummy breakfast.  Then, Daddy stayed home with Hannah while I went to sacrament meeting by myself (that was kinda nice actually!) Hannah was still recovering a little from pneumonia and we didn't want to take her to nursery. 

Later that day we decided to change our day up a bit and had a little Mom-Day BBQ at Kennedy Nelson Ledges State Park. We walked through the ledges and into some of the coves to see pretty waterfalls!  Took lots of pretty and fun pictures!

This face kills me!

Got a little spooked at first!

It was a great day with my family!  Just perfect!


Hannah is an extreme mess maker.  I gave her some watercolors thinking they would be "less mess"!  Boy, was I wrong!  The paint ended up all over her and some of her toys and play furniture.

J and B got to come play at our house for a morning!  We love those two boys!

We went to the zoo to see the new elephant exhibit and it did not dissapoint, we were able to see them move from one side of the exhibit to the other...Have you ever seen an elephant move?  You do NOT want to get in their way!  They go super fast with those big ling legs.  Hannah was enthralled while Catherine showed her the "ewphs" as Hannah called them.

Looking at the lions with Mike.

Such amazing animals!

Looking at giraffes and zebras with Daddy.

I caught these two flamingos fighting over something.

Ommmmm.

Cute little itty bitty baby monkeys. (the mommy can sit in your hand)

We planted our salsa garden!  We planted tomato, green bell pepper, jalapeno starters.  We also planted zucchini starters.

It started to rain as we were planting.

Then it started raining harder!

When it started dripping off of our heads, we decided to finish up quick and go inside for a bath!

this is out of order, but I got a serious cut from the glass that "used" to be in this case.  I opened it and it fell out.  I caught it before it hit Hannah, but It cut my cheek!  It was right before church and everyone kept telling me I had blood on my face, but it was just a fresh wound.

That is the cut on my cheek, this is the next day after it happened.  It was healing up quick.  I can't even see it now.

Hannah and I finished our garden the next day when it was nice and sunny outside.  This is when it started..you should see it now, they are huge and starting to get little buds.

We found a worm while working and Hannah tried to pull it apart!  Ew!

I look a little too over excited about those pots...they don't look like there is anything in them.

Enjoying a popsicle after all our hard work!

Our zucchini...we think the squirrels and rabbits might eat them, but we thought we'd try.

Another mess...this time beef stew that did not get eaten and instead got flung all over Hannah, Mom, and the walls.  I was not very happy until Hannah said "WOAH!"  with her eyebrows raised as high as mountains...  then I started laughing.

We helped with the Memorial Day Breakfast at church.

The scouts and leaders were in charge of cooking, but the young women cooked some of the time too.

However who do you think was in charge of this?  The scouts?  No...the scout leaders!!!

Some good friends at the picnic.

Flipping the pancake.

Catching it.

Hannah and Dad.

Later that day, we went to Mike and Catherine's house and had a yummy picnic!

The dudes chillin' (or shall we say baking) in the heat.

They busted out a slip n slide and let the kids slide down the hill in the backyard.  We didn't bring Hannah's swimming suit, but we did end up letting her try it.  She was a little wary at first...

Then she wanted to go again and again.

Out redneck kid in her diaper and all muddy!

We got to go on a nice (but very sweaty) walk with our friend Molly.  She took some pictures of us!  Hannah had fun getting in and out of the stroller the entire time and I had fun talking with Molly!  Too bad we didn't get any pics with her in it...she was the one taking the pictures...that's how it goes I guess!

using Molly's sunglasses to block the sun.

We had a fun May...and now June is almost over, hopefully I'll get that posted soon!